But no such luck. Another text, Prentice Hall’s Medieval and Early Modern Times even goes so far as to call medieval Muslim Spain a “multicultural society.” History Alive! says that in medieval Spain “a unique culture flourished in cities like Cordoba and Toledo, where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in peace.”[10] Of course, this is a common historical myth today: even the conservative flagship National Review gushed in 2002 about medieval Spain as a multicultural paradise featuring “a vibrant economy and an adventurous intellectual community, ruled by a benign Islamic monarch whose Jewish right-hand man helps bring about a mutually beneficial relationship with Orthodox Christians.”[11]
But pace Dr. Goebbels, constant repetition does not make this sort of thing true, and it has no business being in a school textbook where it can mislead students about exactly what kind of society jihadists wish to establish by imposing Sharia. Even historian Maria Rosa Menocal, who has with her book, The Ornament of the World, popularized the notion of a tolerant, pluralistic Islamic al-Andalus, acknowledged in that book that Christians and Jews living in Muslim Spain had to abide by the laws of dhimmitude that enforced their second-class status. In return for a relative religious freedom, she writes, Jews and Christians “were required to pay a special tax — no Muslims paid taxes — and to observe a number of restrictive regulations: Christians and Jews were prohibited from attempting to proselytize Muslims, from building new places of worship, from displaying crosses or ringing bells. In sum, they were forbidden most public displays of their religious rituals.”[12]
Historian Kenneth Baxter Wolf observes that, once they conquered Spain, the new Muslim rulers enacted a series of laws largely “aimed at limiting those aspects of the Christian cult which seemed to compromise the dominant position of Islam.” After enumerating a list of such laws, he adds, “Aside from such cultic restrictions most of the laws were simply designed to underscore the position of the dimmîs as second-class citizens.”[13]
A “multicultural society”? Not in the way that the students who use the Prentice Hall textbook will understand the term.
Sharia in general gets short shrift in these texts. Students learn that it “makes no distinction between religious beliefs and daily life” (Medieval to Early Modern Times), and that it “helps Muslims live by the teachings of the Qur’an,” (History Alive!), but they hear nothing about stonings or amputation or the subjugation of women and dhimmis. Sharia “is an Arabic word meaning ‘the way that leads to God,’” explains Prentice Hall, but says nothing about the fate that awaits those who, in this life, falter on that way.[14]
FP: What role are teachers’ unions playing?
Spencer: They are either clueless or complicit.
FP: Why are you participating on this panel and what do you hope it will help achieve?
Spencer: I hope by participating in this panel to raise awareness of the corruption of our public school textbooks, so that it may be reversed.
FP: Thanks Robert Spencer.
We welcome all of those interested to come attend this discussion. The panel will be Tuesday night, January 11, at 7 pm at the Luxe Hotel Sunset (11461 Sunset Blvd) in Los Angeles. For more info, Click Here.
Notes:
[1] Gilbert T. Sewall, “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” American Textbook Council, June 2008. P. 6.
[2] Gilbert T. Sewall, “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” American Textbook Council, June 2008. Pp. 19-20.
[3] Gilbert T. Sewall, “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” American Textbook Council, June 2008. P. 20.
[4] “Judge rules Islamic education OK in California classrooms,” WorldNetDaily, December 13, 2003.
[5] Gilbert T. Sewall, “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” American Textbook Council, June 2008. P. 18.
[6] Gilbert T. Sewall, “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” American Textbook Council, June 2008. P. 18.
[7] Gilbert T. Sewall, “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” American Textbook Council, June 2008. P. 19.
[8] “Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo Speaks Out on Education,” Yorktown Patriot,
April 1, 2004.
[9] Gilbert T. Sewall, “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” American Textbook Council, June 2008. Pp. 15-16.
[10] Gilbert T. Sewall, “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” American Textbook Council, June 2008. P. 23.
[11] Scott Galupo, “Progress and Islam: The mini-enlightenment that was Andalusia,” National Review Online, May 30, 2002.
[12] María Rosa Menocal, The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, Little, Brown, 2002. Pp. 72-3.
[13] Kenneth Baxter Wolf, Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain, Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp. 9, 10.
[14] Gilbert T. Sewall, “Islam in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us,” American Textbook Council, June 2008. Pp. 21-22.
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